The United States passed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 yesterday. Cases are rising nationally, and more controversies and developments continue to roil the US response, wrote Lisa Schnirring in a report for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
Currently, the US fatality count from COVID-19 is at 200,818 among 6,897,661 cases that have been reported, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard.
To mark reaching the death threshold, the COVID Memorial Project this morning finished placing 20,000 American flags around the Washington Monument. Earlier this summer, models produced for the White House coronavirus task force predicted that the US death toll could reach 169,890 by October 1 and that deaths would drop off in July and August before rising again at the end of September and worsening through October and November.
As fatalities outpace earlier predictions, cases are also rising again, as many predicted, due to schools and colleges resuming and cooler weather drawing more people indoors for their activities. The New York Times tracker recorded at least 54,874 new cases yesterday and 428 more deaths, with cases over the past week showing a seven percent rise compared to the previous two weeks.
Part of the rise in cases is likely due to tens of thousands of extra cases in recent weeks as colleges and universities reopen for face-to-face instruction, the Wall Street Journal originally reported based on study to appear on the medRxiv preprint server. The team estimated that 3,200 extra cases a day in the US wouldn't have occurred if the schools had kept classes online.
